#PowerHike: Hey Mr. Kejriwal! Care For Another Dharna?

It was a bad Friday for the people of Delhi who spent it in a fear of possible blackout making it literally a black Friday. Reason was the ‘power’ tussle between the Arvind Kejriwal government and discoms in the state.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal had given us high hopes from his manifesto. The problem of high electricity bills was solved by him within a day when he reduced the power tariff y 50 percent and asked Comptroller and Auditor General to audit the three discoms in Delhi. But the stand-off between his government and power distribution companies has taken a bad shape now where people of Delhi will only suffer.

The state electricity regulator, Delhi Electricity Power Regulatory Commission, has allowed tariffs to be raised by 6 to 8 per cent as fuel surcharge which is enough to nullify the reduction announced by Kejriwal government.

The announcement comes while CAG audit into the accounts of private distribution companies is already under progress and a power outage of 10 hours at a stretch looms in the face of consumers. This piece of information came from CM Kejriwal himself who accused the two ADAG group discoms of trying to “blackmail” his government by threatening power cuts of up to 10 hours a day.

NTPC has threatened to switch off about 500 MW of supply to east and central Delhi where BSES Yamuna Power (BYPL) provides power since the latter has not paid its dues worth Rs 179.68 crore. NTPC has informed Kejriwal’s government that it will snap supply to BYPL if the company does not pay up by Friday, the last day of a grace period.

The warning letter from NTPC alleged that BYPL has been repeatedly slipping up in meeting its dues for power purchases. “It may be pointed out that for quite some time both the BSES discoms are significantly delaying the recoupment of the letter of credit beyond the due date,” the letter read.

BYPL has claimed the slippage is a result of several factors, primarily because the state government has encouraged customers not to pay bills, which Kejriwal has claimed were inflated.  Reportedly, BYPL sources said this has compounded its financial problems. BYPL has also asked the state government to give it a bail-out package to pay dues to NTPC.

The other discom, NDPL run by the Tata Power, has paid its dues to NTPC.

However, the power company will have to issue a notice with a deadline for compliance before it can switch off supplies under the power purchase agreement.

Under the letter of credit arrangement, the companies are supposed to clear their bills within 60 days. BYPL has asked for it to be extended to 90 days. Following the threat issued Thursday, NTPC and BYPL officials were engaged in a day-long discussion to find a solution to prevent the black-out.

It should be noted that a similar stand-off has taken place three times in the last four years.

In 2013, then chief minister Sheila Dikshit had given such support.  The letter from BYPL addressed to principal secretary Puneet Goel notes that the company is facing a difficult situation in realising its dues and has slipped up in payments to the power generation companies including NTPC and NHPC.  This is because banks have stopped offering fresh credit to it owing to its accumulated revenue arrears of Rs 6,200 crore. BYPL supplies electricity to nearly 14 lakh households.

The Kejriwal government said the DERC should have waited for the outcome of CAG audit before putting burden on the people at a time when lot of questions are being raised on the functioning of these power distribution companies.

Now Kejriwal has the option of cancelling the licenses of these discoms who, according to him, are already fudging their accounts to show losses. He can also call for fresh bidding and revise the power rates after CAG completes the inspection.

But using their old weaponry, now will be a good time to do a dharna. Care for one?